MUNCIE -- In the past, "coroners' cases" requiring autopsies to confirm cause of death or as part of a criminal investigation for Delaware and surrounding counties were performed at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital.

Such cases for Delaware County will continued to be handled at the local hospital, but other counties were informed earlier this summer that theirs no longer would. The result is in many cases longer trips to take bodies to such larger cities as Fort Wayne, and possibly higher costs for those counties, according to local coroners.

The reason for the change, which took effect in July, was the forensic pathologist who had been doing those autopsies moved away, according to Jeff Bird, chief medical officer and vice president of operations at the hospital. East Central Indiana Pathologists, the independent group with which IU Health BMH contracts for pathology expertise, declared it would no longer do autopsies for other counties, said Bird. (Although the autopsies are performed in the morgue at the hospital, they are a service provided by the pathologists group, not by hospital, Bird noted.)

Another physician who is the pathology section director of the IU School of Medicine in Muncie, is a forensic pathologist by training and has agreed to perform local autopsies; with a full-time teaching job, however, she doesn't have time to do more, Bird said.

Before moving away, Paul Mellen, the previous forensic pathologist, typically did about 275 autopsies a year; Delaware County normally requires about 100 autopsies a year, 85 or so of those coroner's cases and the rest of them patients from the hospital, according to Bird.

"It's an unfortunate circumstance," Bird said in a phone interview, noting the hospital had checked on whether IU Health could step in to help, but the IU Health's pathology department generally doesn't do any forensic pathology.

The relationship with other counties has been an informal one in the past, so no contract was broken, he added, though he acknowledged, "I'm sure it's an inconvenience to them" to have to go elsewhere.

Coroners from several nearby counties confirmed the change is indeed an inconvenience — and even a greater expense — but hasn't proven insurmountable so far. Randolph County has already had coroner's cases to deal with since the change was made, and has been taking the bodies to Fort Wayne instead of Muncie, according to Randolph Coroner Tim Crawford.

"It's a long drive for me, it's a longer drive for family members if they need to make a visual verification and it's a long drive for the funeral homes," Crawford said this week, calling the switch "incredibly inconvenient."

Given Randolph's location along Indiana-Ohio state line, Crawford said he could theoretically take bodies to Dayton, Ohio, for autopsies for the 20-30 cases he has in a typical year, but he prefers to stay in-state.

One positive element in Jay County's shift going to Fort Wayne for autopsies, according to Jay Coroner Jason White, is that he can tell that office the circumstances of the death and then schedule the autopsy for a specific time, so the funeral homes that handle transport of bodies for his office can wait to take the body back rather than making two trips to and from Fort Wayne. White said his office requires about 30-35 autopsies a year.

Another positive to the change, according to Blackford County Coroner Tod Waters, is having cases in Fort Wayne handled by Scott Wagner, whom Waters praised as an excellent forensic pathologist. The downside of that, however, is that final reports will take longer because of Wagner's caseload — likely 9-12 weeks rather than the usual 4-6 weeks from Muncie, Waters said.

Though Crawford said he hadn't gotten a recent bill to compare prices of autopsies in Fort Wayne and Muncie, White said he had just gotten a bill from the Fort Wayne service, showing the cost at $1,500 for a full autopsy there compared to $1,000 in Muncie.

Without a large budget to work with — and having planned for next year's budget before learning the extend of the difference in costs between Muncie and Fort Wayne — White now hopes to be able to cover the costs of any more autopsies this year on the existing budget.

With a limited number of sites and specialists providing forensic pathology services — Waters said Terre Haute and Indianapolis would be other options — coroners called the loss of IU Health BMH as a resource was an inconvenience, but one they had to find a way around. "It (an autopsy) is not something you can just not do," Crawford noted.

Contact news reporter Robin Gibson at (765) 213-5855 and follow her on Twitter at @RobinGibsonTSP.